Dow hits 10,000 but it's an illusion - there are still lingering threats to the economy -- rising unemployment, weak consumer spending and a battered housing market.

Ethan Harris, head of North America economics at Bank of America Merrill Lynch, described it as a "relief rally that the world is not coming to an end."

The mood was far from the euphoria of March 1999, when the Dow surpassed 10,000 for the first time. The Internet then was driving extraordinary gains in productivity, and serious people debated whether there was such a thing as a boom without end.

"If this is a bubble," The Wall Street Journal marveled on its front page, "it sure is hard to pop."

It did pop, of course. And then came the lost decade.

SHOOT: This is also going to pop. Why? Because any gains are going to be wiped out by surging energy prices. And here it is:

Oil jumped $1.03 to settle at $75.18 a barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange.

clipped from finance.yahoo.com NEW YORK (AP) -- When the Dow Jones industrial average first passed 10,000, traders tossed commemorative caps and uncorked champagne. This time around, the feeling was more like relief. The best-known barometer of the stock market entered five-figure territory again Wednesday, the most visible sign yet that investors believe the economy is clawing its way back from the worst downturn since the Depression. The milestone caps a stunning 53 percent comeback for the Dow since early March, when stocks were at their lowest levels in more than a decade. "It's almost like an announcement that the bear market is over," said Arthur Hogan, chief market analyst at Jefferies & Co. in Boston. "That is an eye-opener -- 'Hey, you know what, things must be getting better because the Dow is over 10,000.'" It was the first time the Dow had touched 10,000 since October 2008, that time on the way down.